St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-21
And the Award Of the Latter
Body for Steam Heating
Squarely Sat Upon.
DR.. Day is Wrathy and Says
the Work Will Be De-
layed Two Years.
Mr.. Dawson, Of the Commits
sion, is of About the
Same Opinion.

DOaru ana Une special court mouse COM
that will possibly delay any
further work on the structure until the
next session of the legislature, two years
hence. The act creating the court house
commission provides that all awards of
contracts should be confirmed by three
fourths vote of the county board and
city council in joint session. AT joint
meeting of the two bodies, held in the
council chamber yesterday afternoon,
the court house commission submitted
its award of the steam heating contract
to the highest bidder, A. o. Nepil, of
Des MoineS, To-, whose bid was $685.
36S.S3, over 81, 900 in excess of the next
highest bidder. The award was not
confirmed.
There were present at the meeting
Commissioners Boyd, DAILY, Leidman
and Mitsch, of the county board, and
Aid. Dowlan, Conley, O'Connor, Cullen,
Sanborn, Weber, Kenny, Kahn, Hamm,
Bryant, Minea, Long, Petsch and Ryan,
of the city council. Aid. DOwlan, as
vice president of the council, occupied
the chair, and Ale. Kahn, by virtue of
his Office as county auditor, acted as
clerk. Seventeen out of the eighteen
votes present were required to confirm
the award.
Two months ago. when the court
house commission made the award to
Nepil, a cry was raised by the unsuc-
cesSful local bidders that they had not
been treated fairly, and County Com
missioner DAILY announced his intention
to vote against its confirmation. Mr..
Daly'S reasons were two fold. At the
suggestion of the Knights of Labor he
had caa1rpd tha no cSa OQ nf a rpSnlllfiOn
through the county board requesting the
court house commission to favor st.
Paul bidders in letting contracts, and
he believed that the award to Nepil
was unlawful, because he was the high
est bidder. The whole matter was re-
viewed and discussed at the meeting
yesterday. Commissioner Mitsch
OPENED THE BALL
by demanding an explanation. Mr..
DAILY then offered a lengthy written pro-
test, which was read. The protest
represents that neither the architect
nor any Of the court house
commission are skilled in the require
ments of steam heating, and that they
have been imposed upon by false state
ments, and unlawfully awarded the con-
tract to Nepil when all other bids were
lower, and the bidder guaranteed to fur
niSh a guarantee bond that their work
would be satisfactory: The signers
of the protest were Thomas Davis,
Charles II. Parmelee, Allan Black. Will
lam Rogers and Holland 81 Thompson,
all Steam-heating contractors, residents
of st. Paul, whose bids were rejected
for that of Nepil. DR.. Day, of the court
house commission, made a very peril
nent explanation of the action of that
body. He said:
1t is not customary and the architect did
not furnish any detailed plans or specifica-
tons for bidders The only requirement was
that the building should be heated to 700
when the thermometer outside was 300
below zero. 1t was the judgment of the COM
mission and of experts TO whom the bids
were referred, that the building with over
million and a half cubic feet of surface to heat,
would require radiation of from $4,000 to
10000 feet Mr.. Parmelee's bid provided
for about 13, 900 feet of radiation; Mr.. Rogers
for $4,000; Holland & Thompson's for
$4,000; Thomas Davis for $4,000; S. l.
%eps b bid bp pPevd ied 1900 for
$4,000, feet and the building could
not be heated with less. They
say in their sworn protest that the radiation
is worth only 30 cents a foot, but III every
ence is the difference between Phillip drunk
and Philip sober. Nepil's bid was
the only bid which included all
necessary traps and provides for
return pipes for hot water: Then another
most important thing, was that all the bid
ders' plans except NepiFs, provided for
hanging the pipes in the basement, which
would naturally destroy the best floor in the
building. We sent all the bids to the two
country. Levi Il. Greene, of Boston, and Mr..
Bell, the supervising architect at Washington,
asking them to advise us what TO do,
and they both agree that Nepirs meets
\ .r,t
comes anywhere near doing SO. We believe
we have done the best we could for the
public and do not see how we could have
done otherwise.
THE EXPERTS STORIES.
The opinions of Experts Green and
Bell were then read. In each of these
opinions the competing bids were tabu-
lated as follows:
Bidder Amount. Reduction
s; Pope. -. .......... $1,000 $4,000 feet
Holland L. Thompson. 23,S44 1900 feet
Allen Allen Black............. $4,000 5000 feet
William Rogers. ........ 20,645 1880 feet
G. III. Parmelee. ......... 1892 1880 feet
A. U. Nepn. ....."...... 3S,36S %, 200 feet
The experts reports criticise each bid
separately and in detail. They both
concur in the report of Architect Bass
ford, who first advised the commission.
A delegation of steam heaters were
present, and William Rogers occupied
defense of the bid which
he furnished, claiming that it would do
all that was required. He attacked the
reputation of MIR. Greene. and said that
the commission in accepting Nepil's bid
was paying for lot of useless material.
The contract with Nepil provides
for temporarily heating the building
this winter, allowing the plasterers to-
work during the cold season. DR.. Dav
said that if they did not work this
winter the completion of the building
would be so much delayed that the i'm.
terest alone on the 100000 already in
the building would amount to
$4,000. He said that if the
award to Nepii was not con-
firmed this could not be done, and the
commission would be liable to other
contractors for the delay. When the
ROLL WAS CALLED
on the confirmation of the award the
vote stood:
Ayes-Ald. Conley, O'Connor, Petsch, Cul-
len, Ryan, Sanborn, Weber, Kenney, Hamm,
Bryant, Mlnea, Long, Dowlan.
Nays-Commissioners Boyd, DAILY, Leid-
man, Mitsch and AID. Kahn.
There are four more votes that might
decide the matter, if they all voted in
the affirmative. Mayor Smith, who is
chairman of the county board, was alb
sent; President Kerr of the council
was absent, and Commissions
erS HendrickSon and Freeman.
The latter gentleman is living
very ill in White Bear.
and may never recover. 1t is not at ali
probable, however, that they could ever
be brought together or that they would
all vote with thd aldermen in sur port
of the court house commission.
The motion was declared lost, and the
meeting adjourned after unanimously
approving the award of the contract for
mantel pieces and thing to Johnson
Bros. & LOOmis.
DIR. DAY WAS HOT.
DR.. Day was about as mad man as